In a report issued in 1998, the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry proposed creation of a voluntary, private sector entity to develop and implement effective, efficient, and coordinated strategies for ensuring the widespread availability of valid and reliable information on quality for use by all healthcare stakeholders. The National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting (National Quality Forum, or NQF) was established in 1999, with a mission to improve healthcare quality by deploying a strategy to standardize the means by which healthcare quality data are measured and reported, and to ensure that healthcare quality data are widely available. By deliberate design, the NQF gives equal voice to consumers, healthcare purchasers, health plans and providers, and quality improvement and research organizations. Together NQF members work to promote a common approach to foster statewide capacity for quality improvement. The purpose of the NQF Annual Meeting is to: 1) foster a sense of common purpose and develop a shared framework for developing, implementing, and reporting consistent measures of the quality of care across consumers, purchasers, and providers of healthcare; 2) disseminate information and share experiences and concerns about the implementation of quality measures and evidence- based "best practices" to improve quality; 3) link research to practice with an emphasis on issues that relate to feasibility and the use of measures after development; and 4) identify important areas for future research relating to the development, testing, implementation, and reporting of quality measures. The third annual meeting will focus primarily on the status of NQF projects and the implementation and follow up that will result from the approval of the corresponding consensus reports. Next steps will also be discussed for the NQF approved Strategic Framework Board report.